Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth Europe said: "Europe's food and farming system is broken and if giant firms, like Monsanto and Bayer, are allowed to merge they will have an even tighter toxic grip on our food. The mergers are a marriage made in hell and should be blocked by regulators. We need to build a fairer and greener food system out of corporate control."

The Bayer-Monsanto deal is one in a series of mergers in the agriculture-chemicals sector being considered by the European Commission's competition regulators. The Dow Chemical-DuPont deal has already been approved, and a Syngenta-ChemChina merger could be approved next week according to reports. Bayer is expected to officially start its acquisition of Monsanto in the very near future.

Bayer and Monsanto made the following vows to each other in the ceremony:

I, Monsanto, take you, Bayer, for my lawfully enriched husband. / I, Bayer, take you, Monsanto, for my lawfully enriched wife.To have, and to hold more and more and more. From this day forward, for richer and richer. I promise to be true to you in good times for agribusiness - and in bad times for nature. In public sickness and in our healthy profits. I will love GMOs and toxic pesticides, and honour our power, all the days of my life, until death us do part. I DO!